Expert: Meg - 7/7/2008

Question
Im not sure if i have an eating disorder, but i consistantly count calories and obsess over eating too much. i feel as if i eat too much even when i have a tiny bit, and any food over a hundred calories is fattening. I know that im not going to wake up one day and be fat by just eating one or two more bites of chicken....in the past two months, ive gone from being 119 pounds to 102 and every morning and everynight when i weight myself i try and drop that number lower. its frustrating. i dont want to worry about what i eat, but yet i also want to be skinny. i try and eat as little calories as i possibly can, and at night i mix a good amount of miralax into a glass of water, hoping that will help me drop a quarter of a pound or two. when i do eat, its usually for something sweet, like cookies or cake. what should i do. is there anyway i can fix it without seeing a doctor? or do i even have a problem?

Answer
Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your question and I'm sorry that you are going through this right now.  It sounds to me like something is not right (and I think that you must know, on some level as well-since you you asked this question are are concerned).  Its very common to feel like your problem is not *really* an eating disorder or not bad enough to make you sick.  However, I think if you are able to take a step back and look at this situation like a friend was telling you this stuff, you would be able to see that its not healthy and is worth looking into.

I'm going to give you some links to quizzes that can help you figure out how much of a problem you have:

http://psychologytoday.psychtests.com/tests/eating_disorders_access.html

http://eatingdisorderrecovery.com/quiz/index.html


Hope this helps.  

You deserve to feel okay about your body and not feel so badly about your  body and there is definitely a way out.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Best,
Meg